Wildcats ride pitching, stack wins

Destrehan coach Chris Mire says he isn’t sure his team is playing its best baseball, but that he’ll certainly take the results from a team that’s winning without a lot of flash, but consistently winning nonetheless.

The Wildcats won six straight games through a Monday victory over East St. John, three of those by a single run in district competition. DHS (19-10, 7-2) has won 14 of 16 overall and is tied with Central Lafourche atop the District 7-5A standings.

“We’re finding ways to win,” Mire said. “Nothing has come easy this year. We’ve battled injuries and everything else, it seems like, but we’re just finding a way to score at least one more run than the other team does.”

Destrehan earned a hard fought 4-3 win at East St. John Monday in a game rescheduled due to weather on Saturday.

The Wildcats broke a 2-2 tie in the third inning on a Clay Hurm RBI single, then extended the lead to 4-2 on a Cole Porter sacrifice fly RBI. East St. John scored a run in the seventh inning to draw within a run but Porter ended the threat from there in relief.

Porter pitched four innings in relief of starter T.J. Thomas and earned the win, allowing no earned runs (one total) on two hits. He struck out four. Thomas and Porter outdueled Herman Farlough, who went six innings for East St. John and allowed two earned runs (four total).

Ethan West went 1-for-1 and scored two runs to lead Destrehan offensively.

Mire said a win at East St. John is something that can never be taken for granted.

“Playing at East St. John is always difficult,” he said. “It’s always been that way regardless of either team’s record. As a coach, it’s kind of one of those games you hold your breath and hope you survive. You’re playing in a tough environment and it always seems like we get their best effort, and the game might be 15-10 or 4-3 … you never know.”

While any clash with cross-parish rival Hahnville draws great attention, East St. John is another River Parishes district foe eying bragging rights in the region.

“Their closest opponent is us, so we’re kind of the team they’re trying to pop every year and get a statement win against,” Mire said. “We always have our hands full.”

In the Wildcats’ 1-0 win over H.L. Bourgeois last Thursday, Landon Marceaux came up just one out shy of a perfect game, but finished with a no-hitter nonetheless.

Marceaux hit a batter on a 3-2 curveball with two outs in the seventh inning before retiring the day’s final batter. He struck out 12 batters.

While Marceaux was just short of a perfect effort, he hardly came up short for his team who needed every out in a tight, low-scoring game against Bourgeois and pitcher Christian Boudreaux. Boudreaux allowed four hits and walked one while striking out six over his complete game effort.

“Landon had a really good fastball and strong command,” Mire said. “He really dominated the game from start to finish, and as it turns out we needed all seven no-hit innings to finally scratch one across.”

Destrehan scored the game-winning run in the seventh inning on T.J. Thomas’ sacrifice fly RBI, which plated Dustin Joliff.

It was the second 1-0 win over Bourgeois in a week’s span for Destrehan, which felled the Braves 1-0 on April 3 on the back of a Joshua MacCord shutout.

The Wildcats are set for a district series with Terrebonne. They will host the Tigers today at 4 p.m. and travel to Terrebonne Friday for a 6 p.m. start.

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